Photoinduced Ordering of Block Copolymers

Photoinduced ordering of disordered block copolymers (BCPs) would provide an on-demand, nonintrusive route for formation of well-ordered nanostructures in arbitrarily defined regions of an otherwise disordered material. Here we achieve this objective using a rapid and simple approach in which photoconversion of an additive blended with the BCP introduces strong interactions between the additive and one of the chain segments and induces strong order in the BCP blend. The strategy is generally applicable to block copolymers containing chain segments capable of hydrogen bonding with the additive.